Kingdom Rush Game

Kingdom Rush – Well-animated tower defense action

Competitive Times

It is all too easy to become quickly bored with a tower defense title, particularly one that doesn’t really stand out from the many thousands of them that are out there. It is even worse when games give us no reason to take note of them by being too ‘run of the mill’ and not making any attempt at a bit of innovation. With such sublime titles as Bloons Tower Defense 5 kicking about the internet and giving other tower defense titles some serious thinking to do, the competition is fierce and sub-par efforts simply will not suffice any longer. Kingdom Rush is a light-hearted game of the tower-defense genre with a little bit of fantasy thrown in. It isn’t revolutionary in terms of what the gameplay has to offer, but the features it does have are distinctly above the mere ordinary.

Gameplay

Kingdom Rush’s gameplay is exactly what you would expect from a tower defense title: a piece of land to be defended, a set of enemies which move repeatedly along a pre-set path, and a selection of towers that automatically attack the enemy when you place them. Kingdom Rush has all these things, but the whole thing is so stylish that it feels like no other tower defense game can match up to it.

The range of towers is limited to a selection of four, but the ability to upgrade them is what makes the game so fun to play. The towers can actually be upgraded several times, and you are also given the opportunity to choose 2 different paths down which you can upgrade your tower further. The standard ‘mage’ tower, for example, can be upgraded either into a Sorcerer (which has the effect of weakening the enemies’ armour’) or the Arcane (this teleports enemies to a convenient location). These towers can be placed at different positions for maximum effectiveness, since experimenting with different types and locations of towers is the most entertaining part of the strategy in Kingdom Rush. Barracks are also available to be built, which send a steady stream of troops out to slow down the enemy while your nearby tower picks them off.

Another notable feature of the gameplay is the selection of mythical enemies that range from orcs to trolls and magical wizards. Each of these enemies has remarkably different stats and characteristics to ensure that the game doesn’t become too repetitive.

Other Notable Features

One of the features that stands out even more than the gameplay is the graphics. The game is animated in a cartoon style, which makes a nice change from the usual serious nature of medieval tower-defense games. In particular, fantasy tower defense games often take themselves too seriously, and the detailed, weird, and wonderful animations of each of the different enemies and towers in the game make it even more fun to play. The graphics also make the surrounding environment shine, since the terrain also changes between battles from woodlands to snow-covered wildernesses.

Conclusion

Though Kingdom Rush doesn’t revolutionise the tower defense genre, it makes for some solid gameplay leading on to literally hours of unforgettable gameplay based on some astounding graphics, making it the tower defense title that makes all others out there bow down to their knees, with Ironhide being the people to thank for such a brilliant experience.